Sunday, November 16, 2014

For new readers, Tanta was my co-blogger back in 2007 and 2008. She was a brilliant, writer - very funny - and a mortgage expert. Sadly, she passed away in 2008, and I like to celebrate her life on her birthday.

Monday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, the NY Fed Empire Manufacturing Survey for November. The consensus is for a reading of 10.5, up from 6.2 in October (above zero is expansion).

• At 9:15 AM, the Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for October. The consensus is for a 0.2% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 79.3%.

Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $75.84 per barrel and Brent at $79.51 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $94, and Brent was at $107 - so prices are down more than 20% year-over-year.

Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are around $2.89 per gallon (down about 30 cents from a year ago). If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.